See How She Runs (The Chronicles of Izzy #1)(59)
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“Are you ready to talk yet pet?" Xavier asked.
I looked up defiantly and flipped him the bird. I would make him run out of nightmare scenarios. I could survive them all. No matter how graphic or horrifying, I would not let this man win. I would not cave, and I would not die. Either way he would have won. So instead, I resolved myself to live on and defy him in this small way.
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Next it was a torture room in which all of my fingers were cut off. This one made me think he had seen one too many "Saw" movies. All of which I had avoided because, just yuck. I did not spend long in there. I think he could tell I was not impressed.
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Scene after scene passed before me. There was a plane crash, a car wreck, a fall from the top of a building. Scene after scene passed. My body was abused, burned, cut, limbs were severed. Every nightmare was brought into fruition. I did not know how much time passed while I was there. I could not tell if this was moving at real time or if it was moving at the pace of a regular dream.
Each new nightmare brought on a new horror until finally he brought one that even I could not refute. Not even in the dreaming. He took me and locked me in a coffin. I laid there as the air slowly started to seep out of the box leaving me without any oxygen. I fought against the box and struggled. I knew that he would leave me like this. I knew that if I did not lift my wards, I would spend the rest of my life in this tiny lightless box.
I tried to breathe but ultimately I think I blacked out. I did not even know that was possible in the dreaming, but I guess the mind could only take so much. When I awoke I was still in the small box and I tried to even my breathing. It was just a closed space. It was not even a real closed space. I tried to convince myself, but my mind would not allow it. My breathing started to speed up again when I heard a voice.
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“Izzy, Izzy, you have to wake up. Your guy is here, but there is something happening. You have to wake up. Fight it, they came for you, now make it worth them coming. It is not real. You can control it as much as he can. FIGHT IT!" I heard Molly yell before she was ripped from the dreaming.
I struggled and started to feel the dreaming around me. I realized with my ward down I could shape it as easily as I always could. I took a breath and calmed my mind. I had to get out. With the image of Kennan driving me, I imagined the coffin opening. The lid crashed open. I shot out of the coffin and raged against whatever was keeping me in the dreaming.
I ripped at it until I was finally brought back to the surface and I woke up to find a whole new horror.
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TWENTY FIVE
I turned my head to see Xavier standing over Kennan’s prone form. I wondered if I was still in the dreaming. There was no way he would have taken him down so easily. I looked for any sign of blood but did not see any. Then I looked at Xavier and realized he had been waiting for me to wake up.
I looked down at his hand and saw a gun pointed straight at Kennan. Before I could even scream, Xavier smiled in my direction and pulled the trigger. It hit Kennan in the throat and then he fired again hitting him in the chest. There was so much blood.
I was drowned in it, a whole new horror replacing all of the nightmares that Xavier had induced. He had just brought them to reality and I was overtaken by a haze of red. I was numb to the pain. No longer could I hurt, he had just taken away the one person that was my entire world.
I pulled the mechanism from my head slowly, ripping the tubes from my arms in the process. I sat up on the bench as Xavier approached me. I reached behind me discreetly to grab a scalpel from the table. I waited for him to get as close as he was going to.
“So are you finally ready to submit?" he asked, bending over me.
With the numbness pulsing through my veins and the rage of a lifetime of loss fueling me, I lashed out. I drew the scalpel across his jugular with an accuracy borne of countless hours of training with Ian. I severed his artery and as he fell to his knees in surprise, I pushed him over. I hopped down from the table in the hospital gown and I straddled him. I made sure he was looking at me as his life blood flowed from him.
“Never," I said as I plunged the scalpel straight into his heart, ending his long life.
I sat that way, paralyzed for I don’t know how long. I felt as though my whole world had been stolen. Suddenly, being trapped in a coffin did not seem like such a bad thing. I looked down at my hands covered in blood and tried to wipe them off on my gown violently. No matter how hard I wiped it would not come off. I started to become frantic and realized I was still sitting atop Xavier’s body. I jumped up and away and found myself staring in abject horror towards Kennan’s lifeless body.
I stood there, unsure of what I was supposed to do now. How was I supposed to save anyone if I could not even save the one person I loved? My world felt like it was falling apart and all I could do was stand there dumbly.
“Izzy? Izzy, are you alright?" I heard someone ask softly from behind me.
I turned to find Ian staring at me like I would attack him at any moment. He had his hands in the surrender position and approached me slowly. I looked into his eyes and wanted so badly to scream out or to cry. Any sort of emotion that could convey the emptiness I now felt. Finally, I pointed towards Kennan’s prone body.